


Testudo

by SenyoretaLaliot



Category: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Genre: Book 3: HMS Surprise, Drabble, Gen, bookverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 06:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14326629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenyoretaLaliot/pseuds/SenyoretaLaliot
Summary: When he woke up, the giant tortoise was still there





	Testudo

When he and the purser went down to the hold the next morning he had almost forgotten about its newest resident. He couldn’t help but stand there like a simpleton, momentarily disconcerted. The beast held his gaze, blinked once, then slowly bobbed its head onward. Fascinating creature indeed.  
  
They were startled out of their trance by the accustomed racket of the doctor descending the last few stairs on his rear. Not a minute later he appeared, unaffected as he always was, with a handful of fresh leaves, his set of measurement instruments and the chaotic stack of papers he called his field journal under his arm. "Good morning, gentlemen". Jack dropped his eyes and smiled to himself. "A good morning to you too, my dear doctor".

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: According to Wiktionary, _Testudo_ comes from the Latin _testa_ , "brick, tile", and is a widely-accepted term for tortoises and turtles as well. In my own canon, though, when Stephen chose the name for his new species he also took into account another meaning for _testa_ present in many Romanic languages, where it means “head”. Knowing he’d be the only one aboard who would understand the word play, he made a reference to the Catalan word _caparrut_ , that comes from _cap_ , “head”, and means “stubborn, bull-headed”. So when he named the great tortoise after his dear friend (and he did so after Jack's attemp of convincing him that no, they could not take the tortoise aboard), he was actually calling him stubborn and making sure that it was registered for the posterity. And that's most unfair, because if there is one _testudo_ aboard, that would be the dear doctor.


End file.
